Download Free Essays On The Impact Of Climate Change And Building Codes On Energy Consumption And The Impact Of Ozone On Crop Yield Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Essays On The Impact Of Climate Change And Building Codes On Energy Consumption And The Impact Of Ozone On Crop Yield and write the review.

Part I is a joint paper with Maximilian Auffhammer. The study simulates the impacts of higher temperatures resulting from anthropogenic climate change on residential electricity consumption for California. Flexible temperature response functions are estimated by climate zone, which allow for differential effects of days in different temperature bins on households' electricity consumption. The estimation uses a comprehensive household level dataset of billing data for California's three investor-owned utilities (Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison). The results suggest that the temperature response varies greatly across climate zones. Simulation results using a downscaled version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research global circulation model suggest that holding population constant, total consumption for the households considered may increase by up to 55% by the end of the century. Part II is a joint work with Maximilian Auffhammer and Alan Sanstad. We study the impacts of state level residential building codes on per capita residential electricity consumption. We construct a timeline of when individual states first implemented residential building codes. Using panel data for 48 US states from 1970-2006, we exploit the temporal and spatial variation of building code implementation and issuance of building permits to identify the effect of the regulation on residential electricity consumption. Controlling for the effect of prices, income, and weather, we show that states that adopted building codes followed by a significant amount of new construction have experienced detectable decreases in per capita residential electricity consumption - ranging from 3-5% in the year 2006. Allowing for heterogeneity in enforcement and code stringency results in larger estimated effects. In the last part, I estimate the impact of ground level ozone on corn and soybean yields using nation-wide county-level data and ozone measures for the U.S. during 1990-2006. The implementation of the NOx Budget Trading Program (NBP) aiming to reduce NOx and thus ozone during the growing season is used as an instrument to control for endogeneity in the yield regression. The estimated elasticites of soybean and corn yield with respect to seasonal mean ozone concentrations are -0.60 and -0.57 respectively. The estimated elasticities of crop yield with respect to maximum ozone concentrations are higher suggesting a nonlinear relationship. A back of the envelope calculation shows that soybeans and corn loss from a one standard deviation increase in mean ozone during growing season is about $5 billion dollars. The NBP program reduces the value of crop losses by 2.19 billion for soybeans and 3.2 billion dollars corn during 2003 to 2007.
A balanced assessment based on currently available scientific knowledge of the effects that climate change may have on the environment in Europe and the health of its populations. Written in non-technical language the book responds to growing public and political concern about the consequences of such widely publicized phenomena as global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion. The book also responds to evidence that recent warming trends in Europe have already affected health. The book opens with a brief explanation of the causes of climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion followed by an overview of recent European and global initiatives aimed at monitoring trends and assessing their impact on health. The first main chapter on climate change in Europe summarizes currently documented trends and provides a scenario of possible changes throughout the rest of this century. The second and most extensive chapter reviews scientific evidence on specific health consequences. These include effects related to increased episodes of thermal stress and air pollution; changes in foodborne water-related vector-borne and rodent-borne diseases; mortality from floods and other weather extremes; and changes in the production of aeroallergens associated with respiratory disorders including asthma. Chapter three considers health effects linked to stratospheric ozone depletion giving particular attention to adverse effects on the eye and immune system and skin cancer. The remaining chapters discuss health effects expected in the next decade and outline actions urgently needed in the areas of policy monitoring and surveillance and research.
The portending process of climate change, induced by the anthropogenic accumulations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is likely to generate effects that will cascade through the biosphere, impacting all life on earth and bearing upon human endeavors. Of special concern is the potential effect on agriculture and global food security.Anticipating these effects demands that scientists widen their field of vision and cooperate across disciplines to encompass increasingly complex interactions. Trans-disciplinary cooperation should aim to generate effective responses to the evolving risks, including actions to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases and to adapt to those climate changes that cannot be avoided.This handbook presents an exposition of current research on the impacts, adaptation, and mitigation of climate change in relation to agroecosystems. It is offered as the first volume in what is intended to be an ongoing series dedicated to elucidating the interactions of climate change with a broad range of sectors and systems, and to developing and spurring effective responses to this global challenge. As the collective scientific and practical knowledge of the processes and responses involved continues to grow, future volumes in the series will address important aspects of the topic periodically over the coming years.
Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.
This dissertation examines the impact of and adaptation to environmental change in the agricultural sector. Persistent changes in environmental factors could induce adaptive behavior in the long run. The first chapter examines how climate change affects cropping patterns in the United States since the 1980s. To identify long-run effects of climate change with a county-level panel, a “rolling- panel” approach is used, in which annual climatic variables are constructed by averaging growing- season temperature and precipitation over the past 30 years. Planted acres of corn and soybeans are positively affected by increases in temperature and precipitation in cool and dry areas, but negatively affected in warm and moist areas. The chapter further explores responsive margins of induced acreage changes, including adjustments of cropland conversion and acreage substitution. In addition to trends in rising temperature and changing precipitation patterns, more frequent and severe weather events are also expected in the future. The second chapter focuses on the effects of weather shocks, especially extreme weather events, on crop abandonment in the United States. Using novel measures of weather events, the chapter finds that concurrent hot and dry days as well as dry and wet spells significantly increase the proportion of unharvested corn and soybean acreage. Further analysis provides some evidence that counties with more land enrolled in the Federal crop insurance program tend to be more susceptible to weather shocks. Another dimension of environmental change is air pollution. The third chapter examines the effects of a particular air pollutant, surface ozone, on agricultural production. The chapter focuses on China, which is one of the most heavily polluted nations on earth and is also the largest agricul- tural producer. Using observational data at the county level, the chapter examines nonlinearities in the relationship between rice yields and ozone concentrations and find exposures to extremely high-level ozone concentrations damage rice yields, especially during the panicle-formation pe- riod. Heightened surface ozone levels will potentially lead to reductions in China’s rice yields that are large enough to have implications for the global rice market.
Exclusively published by Lewis, and authored by world class scientists, this is one of the most current works published on energy and climate change. It is the best written synopsis of the chemical, climatic, and environmental effects of continuing emissions of carbon dioxide and other radiatively and chemically active trace gases. This timely work includes energy scenarios, cost and risk analyses, energy emissions, atmospheric chemistry, climate effects, as well as what is accepted as the best possible technical evaluation available, even while recognizing complex social aspects. All scientists and regulators will want Energy and Climate Change.